The Foote School: China Exchange

The day began with a group meeting, then the travelers walked across the street to Yali Middle School for the Welcome Assembly. Deb Riding reports that it was the "best ever." The exchange of gifs was fun and light-hearted, and the Yali students loved the performance of the Foote jazz ensemble. The whole Foote group did the stick dance (learned for last year's May Day) and then a hip hop number to great applause. The Yali students also performed, including a version of the peacock dance done at Foote's Chinese New Year's celebration in February. After the assembly, the students attended an English class.

Yali has opened a third school, Yali Foreign Language School, which will serve grades 7-9, but in its first year has a seventh grade only. Our travellers attended class there, too, and were treated to a special lunch in the cafeteria. When the Footies boarded the bus to leave, the Yali students pounded on the bus with excited goodbyes, making them feel like rock stars.

The afternoon tour of the 1,000-year-old Yuelu Confucian Academy was fabulous. Docent Gabe told everyone that it is the oldest of the ancient Confucian schools in China still standing. Yali students had also prepared for the visit, and toured the Foote students in small groups. Everyone listened to a live performance with musicians playing ancient – and very unusual – Chinese instruments with a high, deep sound: little bells (as small as 6 inches), big bells (2.5 feet), and an unusual stringed instrument.

The day was capped off by a visit to Orange Island in Changsha, where everyone flew kites. Then they were off to spend the night with their individual host families.

posted 3/11/10

March 10, 2010 – From Hong Kong to Changsha

The final morning in Hong Kong was sunny and warm, and the whole group took a walk in Kowloon Park, where they witnessed lots of people practicing Tai Chi. While in the park, they also visited the aviary with amazing exotic birds such as flamingos. Everything was in bloom from azaleas to birds of paradise. Spring! And a lesson learned: even those students who felt they were not quite ready for the required early morning walk had a wonderful time!

After a sad goodbye to guide Damian (whom the students nicknamed "Damian the Spy") and quick two-hour flight to Changsha,

the group was warmly greeted at the airport by several former Yali guest teachers, including Joshua and Li Yu. They were bearing a welcome banner signed by all the Yali students who had visited Foote in the fall. After settling into their rooms at the Nanfeng Hotel, located directly across from Yali Middle School, the students walked to a grocery store in the busy neighborhood to get a perspective into how families eat in China.

After dinner in the hotel restaurant with several of the former Yali guest teachers, most students went to bed by 9 p.m. Walker was the only one who went along with Brad and Karla to a local park, where locals dance and do exercises in groups.

Deb Riding said the students are noticing the difference between Hong Kong and mainland China and between being a tourist and being a guest; she added that they are regularly taking time as a group to reflect on their expeiences.

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day: the students are performing in the Yali welcome assembly, attending classes, and participating in school activities. Tomorrow evening they will meet their host families and begin their homestays.

posted 3/10/10

March , 2010 – A Day of Adventures in Hong Kong

Despite chilly temperatures (upper 40° F) and rain, the group had a great day in Hong Kong. They travelled on the underground (the MTR) to the Wong Tai Sin Daoist Temple, where Clay did a great job as docent. They all got their fortunes told, and Deb Riding reports that students were required to ask the fortune teller a question. The most common one: "Will I be successful in high school?" At the temple they also lit incense to send good wishes to their families.

They took the MTR back to the Kowloon Peninsula and enjoyed a dim sum lunch on the harbor, with its great views. After lunch they boarded the ferry for Hong Kong island. (See photo; click on the photo to enlarge it.) It was Noble's birthday and he wanted to visit BAPE (a high-end department store), which everyone enjoyed. They then took a tram to the top of Victoria Peak. It was windy and a little rainy, but the views were great.

A bus trip arond Hong Kong island included a visit to the Stanley Market. Some of the group went to the beach, and took off their shoes to wade in the South China Sea.

After a stop back at their hotel, the group met the Tam family, whose sons David and Duncan were Foote students until the family moved to Hong Kong in 2008. They all walked to a restaurant for a dinner the Tams had arranged. There was birthday cake, of course, for Noble.
After dinner about half the group went back to the hotel to get some sleep. The other half explored the night market.

posted 3/9/10

March 8, 2010 – Ninth Graders, Teachers Arrive in China

In a telephone call to the school early Monday morning New Haven time, an ebullient Deb Riding reported that the travelers had arrived safely in Hong Kong. It was 11:20 p.m. in Hong Kong, and the group was having a quick dinner at a noodle house across from their hotel. Deb said the flight, while undeniably long, was very pleasant and the kids held up really, really well. She says they are all very happy and excited to be in China. The group has the same guide as last year, so Foote already has a good relationship with him and he understands what they are looking for. In addition to Deb Riding, teachers Brad McGuire and Karla Matheny are accompanying the students.

Once again, each students is prepared to be a docent at a particular site on the itinerary. Clay is ready to be the first at the Wong Tai Sin Daoist Temple tomorrow.

Deb Riding is a sixth grade teacher and coordinator of the Foote-China Program. This is her fourth trip to China with Foote students, and she will be calling the school each day with detailed updates on the trip. Those updates will be posted here ASAP, so check back frequently.

Complete Itinerary
posted 3/8/10

Yali Middle School Visits Foote

From September 30 to October 3, 2009 a delegation of 22

students from Foote's sister school, Yali Middle School in Changsha, China, visited Foote, attending classes and getting to know the school, the students and the faculty. This was the third year in a row that Yali students and faculty visited Foote. The students all stayed with Foote host families, just as Foote students stay with Yali familes when they visit China in the spring. The Chinese students also joined Foote ninth graders on a field trip to the West River, part of a multi-year Foote study of ecology of the river. Click here for the New Haven Register's October 7 story on the visit. You'll find more photos of the visit on our Scrapbook pages.

Foote School Visits China

When Foote's ninth grade students and several teachers visited China in March of 2009, one of them called the school each day to report on their adventures and activites, which were then posted on the web for friends and families to read. Click here for that daily diary.

Foote and China: How It All Began

Foote’s international partnerships began when Henry Fan approached the Yale-China Association in 1998 with the idea of a U.S.-China teacher exchange program. He envisioned a link between Huizhen Academy, the independent elementary school he had founded four years earlier in Ningbo and an American elementary school.

Established in 1901, the Yale-China Association is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote mutual understanding between Chinese and Americans through teaching and service. They suggested Mr. Fan meet with then head of School Jean Lamont and together, working with staff from Yale-China, they began to develop a program that brought teachers annually from Huizhen to teach at Foote for a semester and allowed Foote teachers to travel to China and teach at Huizhen.

Student Travel Begins

In 2004, thanks to a foundation grant that provided funding so the trip could be made available to all ninth graders, eight pioneer students, with teachers Hannah Leckman and Adam Soloman, visited Huizhen Academy over spring vacation.

A New Connection: Yali Middle School

Starting in 2005, Foote began an exchange with a middle school founded in Changsha in 1906 by Yale. Yali (an early Chinese china

transliteration of "Yale") Middle School was known throughout China in the first half of the century for the quality of its instruction. In 1951, the municipal government took over administration of the school, moved it to its present 17-acre campus in the center of the city, and changed its name to the Changsha Number Five Middle School. In 1985, with the re-establishment of relations with Yale-China and with the support of its Chinese alumni, the school was renamed and is once again known as Yali Middle School.

Yali is a "key" secondary school, receiving priority in funding and faculty recruitment. Yale-China currently sends four Fellows to teach at Yali Middle School each year.
Photos: Upper right: Foote students in a computer lab at Yali. Above, left: Foote students and faculty on the Great Wall in 2009.

March 11 – At Yali Middle School and Yali Foreign Language School

March 10, 2010 – From Hong Kong to Changsha

March , 2010 – A Day of Adventures in Hong Kong

March 8, 2010 – Ninth Graders, Teachers Arrive in China

Yali Middle School Visits Foote

Foote School Visits China

Foote and China: How It All Began